Agile

As an agile coach, I find that organisations often have a narrow and constrained view of where agility ought to be practiced. They frequently see it as an IT thing, where development teams must optimise their way-of-working to deliver value more quickly and cheaply. In truth of course, if agility is to be attained then it must be enterprise-wide and not just focused on technical delivery.

The idea of what constitutes stakeholder value in the first place that must be open to challenge, and acknowledged to be ever-changing and emergent. The ability to deal with that change in a measured and managed fashion is where true agility lies. It isn’t just about delivering localised efficiencies, where the wrong thing might be built at less cost; it’s about building the right thing at the right time, inspecting and adapting progress in a controlled way, so that uncertainty is both expected and managed.

In short, organisational agility is really about how to be innovative at enterprise scale.

ScrumDay London is the first event of its kind to be held in the United Kingdom. It will explore the need and demand for Agility across the private and public sector.

Theme: Business Agility Through Professional Scrum

Scrum Day London 2016 will be the inaugural conference organised by Akaditi.com in partnership with Advanced Product Development Ltd & Scrum.Org in London. The conference brings together an international community of Business Leaders, Senior Managers, Software Craftsmen and Scrum Professionals who wish to benefit from agile and scrum practices and ideas.

Experienced executives and practitioners from all disciplines will present information and insights that have meaning for you. Our delegates are receptive decision-makers and thought-leaders in their own communities. They are eager to explore new approaches to long-standing problems.

I recently caught up with an old friend for a quick drink. A quick drink turned into a quick few more — then a quick few more, more! But who’s counting?

I digress — back to the story.

After a couple of drinks my friend started opening up about some personal stuff happening in his life. He was unhappy at work because he felt underpaid and overworked. And on top of that, things weren’t going too well in his marriage; in fact, they were rapidly going from bad to worser (his word, not mine).

After spending some time off-loading the things that were making him unhappy, with some strategically placed questions, I finally got him to start focusing on potential solutions to some of the perceived problems he was facing.

(That’s not to say his problems weren’t real – they were; at least from his perspective. But I’m a firm believer that what we focus on expands; and problems are only problems when we perceive them as such. Hence why Einstein said:

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”)

As far as my friend was concerned, the solutions were simple; if his wife was less argumentative, his boss wasn’t such a jerk and his company paid him more, everything would be fine; and he’d be much happier.

Listening to him talk, reminded me of the opening chapter of Steven Covey’s international best seller ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ where Steven draws the reader’s attention to two concepts he calls the ‘Circle of Concern’ and the ‘Circle of Influence’.

According to Steven, when operating from the Circle of Concern, we tend to think and speak in terms of achieving an end goal as a direct result of something else (usually outside our control) happening first. For example: Read more

But what they fail to realise is that failure comes before learning; even in the dictionary.

That’s because learning tends to happen when we step outside our current comfort zone and move from the known to the unknown. And in the process, we’re likely to get things wrong before we get them right.

Accepting this as part of life and human nature, Agile adopts an iterative approach that enhances learning and reduces the risk of failure by incorporating regular feedback loops – with the preference being shorter feedback loops.

So the next time you’re faced with a complex project or are creating new, innovative products, iterate; because the earlier you fail, the quicker you’ll learn – and the more likely you’ll achieve your objectives with minimal cost, effort and time.

A fundamental truth in life is that there’ll always be more to do than we’ll have time or money to do.

Always!

And although projects are (arguably) a part of life, some Project Managers/Customers/Clients still believe they can defy this fundamental truth by introducing Agile – and then using it as an excuse to make unrealistic demands from delivery teams/suppliers.

However, the goal of Agile is not to deliver everything that the customer wants…

…the goal of Agile is to deliver the most important things that’ll give the customer the greatest value and earliest return-on-investment. In so doing, Agile aligns with Pareto’s 80/20 Principal i.e 20% of the things we do will give us 80% of our results.

So with that in mind, the next time you’re faced with a set of requirements that do not fit within your projects times and/or budget constraints, prioritise the important ones for delivery now; and defer the least important ones until later.

In the book ‘Black Swan’ Nassim Taleb introduces the concept of epistemic arrogance: where what a person thinks they know exceeds what they actually know.

On Agile projects, epistemic arrogance is evident when there’s a mis-match between what we think the customer needs and what the customer actually needs – something David Hussman refers to as ‘Product Arrogance’.

Although one of the key goals of Agile is to deliver value to customers early, it’s not uncommon for ‘agile’ labeled projects to end up delivering the wrong thing on time and within budget. From a Lean perspective, anything that does not deliver value to the customer is waste; and according to Taiichi Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, “waste is a crime” – as well as bad for business!

In this video, Product Anthropologist David Hussman shares some valuable tips, including: Read more

You already know that Agile has revolutionised the software development industry — enabling companies to benefit from lower costs, higher quality and shorter times to market.

But did you also know that organisations using Agile in other areas of their business (i.e. HR, legal, sales, marketing, accounting) are reporting higher retention rates, quicker returns on investment and higher profit margins?

He was a Macedonian warrior king who, by the age of thirty, had conquered one of the largest empires in ancient history — stretching from the Ionian sea to the Himalayas’. Undefeated in battle, he’s considered one of the most successful commanders of all time. So much so, that top military academies throughout the world still teach his military tactics today.

One of Alexander’s greatest battles was fought at Gaugamela, against the Persian king Darius III.

And although his army was outnumbered two to one by the Persians, Alexander kicked Darius’s butt all the way from Gaugamela to Arbela (modern-day Iraq).

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Testimonials

If you need to migrate your enterprise over to agile methods, I believe that Ade is definitely one of the best coaches around, and I would recommend him every time.

Colin Mcclernon

Software Developer, Partnership

Ade's passion for all things Agile is backed up by his in-depth knowledge. Any organisation or individual venturing into Agile territory or wanting to up their game will find great value in Ade's insights and coaching skills.

Rob Aston

Product Owner, Financial Times

Ade is one of the best advocates for Agile Development and Scrum masters I have met in my professional career.

Marin Ganev

Test Analyst, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance

As an expert on agile methodology (scrum and kanban) and a gifted communicator, Ade put his skills to good use in rallying management and team around process simplifications that had an out-sized impact.

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Testimonials

If you need to migrate your enterprise over to agile methods, I believe that Ade is definitely one of the best coaches around, and I would recommend him every time.

Colin Mcclernon

Software Developer, Partnership

Ade's passion for all things Agile is backed up by his in-depth knowledge. Any organisation or individual venturing into Agile territory or wanting to up their game will find great value in Ade's insights and coaching skills.

Rob Aston

Product Owner, Financial Times

Ade is one of the best advocates for Agile Development and Scrum masters I have met in my professional career.

Marin Ganev

Test Analyst, Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance

As an expert on agile methodology (scrum and kanban) and a gifted communicator, Ade put his skills to good use in rallying management and team around process simplifications that had an out-sized impact.